Department of Agriculture June 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) is requesting comments from interested individuals and organizations on an extension of a currently approved information collection associated with transferring of farm records from one FSA county office to another.

This is to inform the public of two additional upcoming meetings regarding the Animal Disease Traceability (ADT) system. These regional meetings will provide additional opportunities for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to hear from the public, particularly from the cattle and bison sectors, about the successes and challenges of the current ADT framework and provide a venue for the exchange of ideas about ways to overcome these challenges and fill gaps in the existing system.

This proposed rule would implement a recommendation from the American Pecan Council (Council) to establish the initial assessment rates for the 2016-2017 and subsequent fiscal years at $0.03 per pound for improved varieties, $0.02 per pound for native and seedling varieties, and $0.02 for substandard pecans handled under the pecan marketing order (order). The Council administers the order and is comprised of growers and handlers of pecans operating within the production area and a public member. Assessments upon pecan handlers would be used by the Council to fund reasonable and necessary expenses of the program. The fiscal year begins October 1 and ends September 30. The assessment rates would remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

This recommended decision proposes amendments to Marketing Order No. 982 (order), which regulates the handling of hazelnuts grown in Oregon and Washington. The proposed amendments are based on the record of a public hearing held on October 18, 2016, in Wilsonville, Oregon. Two amendments are proposed by the Hazelnut Marketing Board (Board), which is responsible for local administration of the order. The proposed amendments would add both the authority to regulate quality for the purpose of pathogen reduction and the authority to establish different regulations for different markets. In addition, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) proposed to make any such changes as may be necessary to the order to conform to any amendment that may result from the public hearing. The proposals are intended to aid in pathogen reduction and meet the needs of different market destinations.

The USDA Forest Service, Bitterroot National Forest will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed Gold Butterfly project under the authorities in the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) as amended by the Agricultural Act of 2014. The Gold Butterfly EIS will analyze and disclose the effects of treatments proposed on about 10,495 acres of national forest land in the Sapphire Mountains between the confluence of Gold Creek and Burnt Fork of the Bitterroot River to the north and Saint Clair Creek to the south. The Gold Butterfly project area is bounded on the west by the National Forest boundary with private land and on the east by the Stoney Mountain Inventoried Roadless Area (IRA). The Gold Butterfly project area is located about 10 miles southeast of Stevensville and seven miles east of Corvallis, Montana, in Ravalli County.

We are advising the public of our determination to recognize Cyprus as being free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), rinderpest, and swine vesicular disease (SVD), and as low risk for classical swine fever (CSF). Based on the findings of a risk assessment, which we made available to the public for review and comment through a previous notice, we have determined that the surveillance, prevention, and control measures implemented by the European Union (EU) and Cyprus, an EU Member State, are sufficient to minimize the likelihood of introducing CSF, FMD, SVD, and rinderpest into the United States via imports of species susceptible to these diseases or products of those species.

This Notice announces that the Rural Business-Cooperative Service (Agency) is accepting fiscal year (FY) 2017 applications for the Socially-Disadvantaged Groups Grant (SDGG) program. The Agency will publish the program funding level on the SDGG Web site located at https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/socially-disadvantag ed-groups- grant. Expenses incurred in developing applications are the responsibility of the applicant. The purpose of this program is to provide technical assistance to Socially-Disadvantaged Groups in rural areas. Eligible applicants include Cooperatives, Groups of Cooperatives, and Cooperative Development Centers. This program supports Rural Development's (RD) mission of improving the quality of life for rural Americans and commitment to directing resources to those who most need them.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection. This collection is a new collection. The primary purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of the current formula used for State Administrative Expense (SAE) allocations for Child Nutrition Programs, identify and examine factors that influence State spending, and develop and test a range of possible alternatives to improve the SAE allocation formula.

On behalf of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Pollinator Health Working Group, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) will host a Listening Session to discuss a strategy to monitor native bees in the United States.

The USDA Forest Service (Forest Service) is participating as a cooperating agency with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the preparation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and Supply Header Project Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). On January 6, 2017, the Forest Service published in the Federal Register (82 FR 1685) a Notice of Availability of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Supply Header Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement and the Draft of Amendments to the George Washington and Monongahela National Forests' Land and Resource Management Plans (LRMPs) to allow for the ACP to cross through these National Forests. Since that publication, the Forest Service determined there is a need to disclose the following: New information relating to the proposed LRMP amendments; a change in the Responsible Officials for the amendments; and the substantive provisions in the planning regulations that are likely to be directly related to the proposed amendments. In addition, a proposed change to one of the LRMP amendments will result in a change to the administrative review procedures as outlined in the January 6, 2017 Federal Register Notice.

The Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests (GMUG), located on the western slope of the Colorado Rockies, are initiating the forest planning process pursuant to the 2012 National Forest System Land Management Planning rule. This process will result in a revised and updated Natural Resource Land Management Plan, often referred to as the Forest Plan, which will guide all management activities on the GMUG for the next fifteen years. The current GMUG Forest Plan was completed in 1983, and was subsequently amended in 1991, 1993, 2005, 2007, and 2009. Previous efforts to revise the Forest Plan, including an eight-year effort involving extensive public participation and the development of comprehensive assessments, a need for change report, and a proposed plan were shelved due to the overturning of the 2008 planning rule. Now that the national 2012 Planning Rule has been established, the GMUG will reinitiate the plan revision process. The plan revision process encompasses three stages: Assessment, plan revision, and monitoring. This notice announces the initiation of the assessment phase, the first stage of the plan revision process, which involves assessing ecological, social and economic conditions and trends in the planning area and documenting the findings in an Assessment report. For the first phase, the GMUG has posted helpful resources, including the current Forest Plan and subsequent amendments, information from the 2006 and 2007 revision efforts, and the Citizen's Guide to National Forest Planning, on the GMUG Forest Plan Web site listed below. During this assessment phase, the GMUG invites other government agencies, non-governmental parties, and the public to share material about existing and changed conditions, trends, and perceptions of social, economic and ecological systems. The GMUG will host a variety of public outreach forums in summer and fall of 2017 to facilitate this effort, and the public is encouraged to participate and provide meaningful contributions. The GMUG is seeking local knowledge of social values, available data resources, areas of use and activities, goods and services produced by lands within the GMUG, and relevant material that will help inform desired conditions, standards and guidelines, land suitability determinations, and other plan components. This information will help identify gaps in the current management plan and inform the need for change, highlighting priority issues that should be addressed in this revision. Public participation and collaboration are essential steps to understanding current conditions, available data, and feedback needed to support a strategic, efficient and effective revision process. Several guiding principles, developed to overcome stakeholder- identified challenges, will drive public engagement throughout the plan revision process. These guiding principles include providing direct and transparent communication through a variety of methods, maintaining focused public involvement, building relationships, and promoting sharing, learning and understanding between the agency and the public. These guiding principles will help the GMUG ensure that public engagement in the current assessment phase and throughout the plan revision process will be functional, accessible, and representative.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing the dollar limitations on the amount of meat and meat food products, poultry, and poultry products that a retail store can sell to hotels, restaurants, and similar institutions without disqualifying itself for exemption from Federal inspection requirements. In accordance with FSIS's regulations, for calendar year 2017, the dollar limitation for meat and meat food products is being decreased from $79,200 to $75,700 and for poultry and poultry products from $58,200 to $56,600. FSIS is changing the dollar limitations from calendar year 2016 based on price changes for these products evidenced by the Consumer Price Index. FSIS has provided an 18-month transitional period for mandatory inspection of Siluriformes fish and fish products. FSIS is currently considering the retail dollar limitations for this product.

The Rural Housing Service (RHS), an Agency within Rural Development, announces that it is soliciting competitive applications under its Housing Preservation Grant (HPG) program. This action is taken to comply with Agency regulations which requires the Agency to announce the opening and closing dates for receipt of pre-applications for HPG funds from eligible applicants. Enactment of additional continuing resolutions or an appropriations act may affect the availability or level of funding for this program.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA, 5 U.S.C. App.), notice is hereby given that the Secretary of Agriculture is soliciting nominations for membership for the Advisory Committee on Minority Farmers (the ``Committee''). Interested persons may submit applications and nomination packages which can be downloaded at: https://www.ocio.usda.gov/document/ad-755.